I see commercial truck drivers drive like shit constantly from my vantage point across the river. I see 101, and all the tools who use their jake brakes on this totally flat, low elevation section of road between three small towns. They constantly almost hit pedestrians trying to walk between our towns (the highway has made it so unsafe tbh), and three derailment accidents have happened in the last year I’ve lived here, in my small area alone, due to their careless driving. I hate 95% of truck drivers. The only ones who drive safe are usually the ones with highly updated, modern trucks up to better building standards. Most are terribly careless, dangerous, and destructive, and I have no problem saying so. They have polluted two rivers here and I hate them for it. They support the logging companies. Also, their inefficient jobs are the epitome of fossil fuels perpetuating ridiculous travel routes. We should have massively updated our rail system for long distance goods travel like other countries have, decades ago. Our train system is laughable and archaic in terms of engineering, yet could be so efficient for delivering goods across the massive U.S. All updates have been subpar and not safe or efficient enough, as evident by the Amtrak tragedy this morning. My thoughts and love goes out to anyone affected by that tragedy brought on by cheap capitalistic building tendencies. I am horrified for these people.
Now that I’ve rambled about why I hate commercial trucks and given a terrible news update…. I knew this shit would happen, but not at my special place. This will not be as covered because of the train tragedy, which is understandable, but I don’t want it being swept under the rug. Fuck that.
A commercial truck carrying oil crashed and spilled into the Santiam River due to unsafe driving over ice (they should not have been driving over with their load). The Santiam is a holy place. The forests and blue water is sacred to me and the most beautiful ecosystem I have ever seen. Few places in the world are so beautiful and pristine and old growth perfection. This place is everything to me. It already barely survived a fire from careless campers. I am shaking and sobbing. Not this place. Why did this have to happen there??? I cannot believe this. He shouldn’t have even been on the fucking road – it was advised a different route was taken but he used this one anyway. The firetruck that arrived to try to save him flipped over too.
http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/36257092-75/linn-county-crash-kills-bend-driver-and-spills-gasoline-into-the-north-santiam-river.html.csp
http://www.kgw.com/news/bend-man-dead-in-fatal-highway-22e-crash/499884036
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/feds-scrapping-sleep-apnea-testing-plan-for-truckers-train-engineers/
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_56fd6f92e4b0a06d58052ee8
https://www.mnn.com/green-tech/transportation/stories/amp/which-is-more-efficient-for-freight-truck-or-train
http://grist.org/article/freight-trains-19th-century-technology-due-for-a-21st-century-revival/amp/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/lets-make-an-effort-to-move-more-freight-by-rail-and-less-by-road-trains-are-more-efficient/2014/03/03/d1947278-9d90-11e3-9ba6-800d1192d08b_story.html?utm_term=.535b8c18d79a
